Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

So tired. Agent 4 was so so tired. She had been on a special mission ordered by The Captain himself. Agent 4 was to go and clear out a large area overrun by those fuzzy Octerians. 4 hadn't excepted this to be so difficult, she was even excited, but soon things take a turn and not in the squid's favor.

Outnumbered, Overrun, and Overwhelming was the entire mission. The fuzzy Octerian soldiers were faster then the regular Octoling ones back home in Inkopolis, and their cries when being splatted were haunting. They didn't let out little garbles of defeat when splatted, they let out watery screams. They sounded like they were in pure agony. Each time 4 took one down, she visibly flinched at their screams of agony-filled defeat.

She stood blankly as she stared at the golden yellow ink-pool that was the last of the fuzzy creatures. She felt guilty, scared even, as her murky reflection looked back up at her in horror.

Usually 4 never felt any remorse or regret for the Octolings took down in Inkopolis, she just knew they'd respawn back at their home-base with Octavio later anyhow. But, they never screamed like this back home either.

Something told her these Octerians weren't respawning back anytime soon.

So here 4 was, walking over to Squid Sister's camp to report to her Captain, wearing her usual grin, upturned ears, cheerful loud voice, and bouncy step, but it was all for show. Her eyes gave away everything you needed to know about what went down.

"Agent 4 Reporting back from sector 7, Sir!" 4 said, giggling and giving a mini salute. The Captain rolled his eyes, hiding his small grin of amusement from her antics. The Captain had always found 4 annoying, loud, and bit hard to contain, but he had to admit two things; She did her job well and was entertaining to watch.

"Good work, 4. Did you find anything unusual on the job? These Octerians aren't like anything we've encountered before." He said, lifting the brim of his hat up more so 4 could see his tired, scarred, green eyes, and face more clearly. The Captain had many scars from battle, some of the most notable being the large greenish scar of the left side of his face, the blindness in his left eye, and the laseration scars to his long, tied-up tentacles.

Screams of agony, thicker more reddish ink, harder more boney builds, screams...

"Nope! Everything is as usual except for a need of barber or two!" 4 said, her smile seeming more weary the longer she stood there.

"Good. Well, you're free to go for the day if you wish. Thanks for your work today." The Captain said, looking up from the ground to see 4 seemingly starring off into space, her face not as it usually way. "Agent 4?"

"Agent 4." The Captain repeated himself, trying to get her attention. That seemed to work and 4 whirled her head around.

"Oh! Sorry!" She said, grinning sheepishly.

"4 are you feeling alright? Did something happen?" The Captain asked, eyes searching her with a slight twinge of concern.

"Yep! Never felt better! Well imma go home now byeee!" She said quickly before running off, not giving him a chance to respond.

"Well that certainly was strange..." Agent 8 said, walking over and putting a hand on The Captain's shoulder, her other hand twirling a tentacle around her finger. "Do you suppose she is injured?" She said, concern evident in her voice.

Callie walked over, not able to contain herself from evesdropping on the conversation. Her usual smile was gone as she looked over at the drain where 4 had just left through.

"I don't know... But i'm getting to the bottom of this..." Callie said before running off to follow the agent.

"If anyone's gonna find out, it's gonne be me!"

Chapter Text

Agent 4 slammed the door to her apartment behind her and quickly kicked her shoes off. She walked over to her couch and flopped onto it tiredly. She sighed, her mind racing with multiple different thoughts, all too fast to even be coherent. She felt scared, she felt guilty, she felt so alone in her empty apartment.

Agent 4 had moved to Splatsville with rest of the Squidbeak Splatoon for her job, although, she often wished she hadn't. She preferred Inkopolis. It was her dream ever since she was a squidling to leave her hometown, move to Inkopolis, and make something of herself.

Agent 4 had lived in an overly strict household her entire life beforehand. Her parents constantly expected her to be a scholar or scientist instead of the thing she wanted, a professional X-Rank player. Things such as TV, phones, internet access, and more were all rarities that 4 wasn't allowed to have. Her parents believed that things such as this were "evil" and seen as "distractions" from more important things like studies. Thus, 4 was forced to grow up as the oddball in her school and neighborhood. Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore, all the stress, all the pain, the restrictions, everything. So, she ran off on her own one day to Inkopolis, and she never looked back.

Agent 4 laid on her couch, slowly falling asleep in her midst of self-deprecation and exhaustion when she heard a knock at her door.

Reluctantly she got up, wondering who on earth would possibly be at her door when she opened it and found none other then Callie herself. 4 immediately switched up her attitude, not wanting to embarrass herself in front of a celebrity and her co-worker.

"Heya there! Uh, what'ca doin' here? How did ya even know where I live?" 4 asked, a slight tone of concern in her voice. How did Callie find her?

"Oh, uh, 8 told me?" Callie said, praying 4 wouldn't dig too deep into how she got here, she hadn't really thought up an excuse.

"Ohhh! Huh! Anyway, can I help you with something?"

"No, But can I help you?"

Agent 4 froze up for a moment at Callie's sudden shift in tone and atmosphere. She hadn't even noticed the pop-star walk into the house and close the door behind her.

"Summer, Talk to me." Callie said, laying an gloved hand on 4's, a look of soft concern in her eyes. Agent 4's eyes went wide at the use of her name. She had gotten so used to her's and her co-workers code names, she often forgot that they all had real names.

The Captain's name was Jacob, something Marie relentlessly made fun of at any given chance, Agent 8's name was Lulu, a name Pearl picked out for her and most likely a play on Chuthulu, Agent 3's name was Amber, And Agent 4's name was Summer.

It was always difficult to remember so they just all called each other by their code names. So hearing Callie call her by her real name took her aback for a moment.

"Talk? W-What do ya mean?" She asked, looking at Callie with a sheepish expression.

"Don't play dumb with me Summer, I know somethings wrong, and I'm not leaving until I know what it is and I help. So if you want a good night's sleep I suggest you start spillin' your guts."

Agent 4 sighed. Callie was persistent. There was no use in trying to stop her from getting what she wanted. 4 walked over to the couch and patted it, signalling for Callie to sit next to her. The pop-star quickly did so, a bit closer then 4 would have liked, but she wasn't going to bother with that.

"What happened? What's been bugging you lately?" She asked, taking her hand and setting it atop the inkling's. Her golden eyes searched 4's, searching for anything to give her a sign as to what she could do to help.

Agent 4 took a long, deep breath before looking up to meet Callie's eyes and beginning.

"That mission... It was... Different... Extremely..." 4 began, frowning as she remembered the chilling events of before.

"How so?" Callie asked, tilting her head slightly like a confused puppy.

"Agony." Agent 4 blurted out, looking away from the idol and over to her wall. "They didn't sound normal... Not like someone just angry from defeat and having to respawn, But like someone dying." the agent muttered, her voice so quiet compared to normal.

"What do you mean?" Callie asked again, concern now dripping in her tone and on her features.

"I-I don't know but... I don't think they're respawning, Callie... I don't think they're Octerians!" Agent 4 said, her voice sounding more frantic.

"I think they're not of o-our kind... I think they're more human-like then anything! Th-They melted... Melted at my ink... Oh God and their screams... Callie I think they're dead after we splat them...." Agent 4 said, her voice beginning to crack and break. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes as she looked away from her elder agent again.

"If that's the case... Then that mean I killed them... I k-killed someone Callie...! I-I Murdered someone! I-I..." Agent 4's dam broke, leaving the tears to fall down her face. Callie quickly wrapped her arms around the inkling and pulled her as close to her as possible, a soft sweet hug of comfort.

"Shhh shhh shhhh... No, No of course not... You're not a murderer Summer! We know nothing about these species, so obviously how were you to know how they'd react? By the way it sounds like they did horribly... I told Mari' we should've send one of us or the 'Cap to check it out, not you... You're still 17 anyhow..." Callie said soothingly, talking softly and carefully to the inkling with a small hum. "I promise you didn't do anything wrong Summer."

The inkling just sobbed into the idol's chest, wrapping her arms back around the woman for comfort.

Callie positioned herself differently on the couch so she was almost laying flat on it and sat so 4 could lay on top of her properly. She hadn't done this for someone since the first night she had been back since her kidnapping. Marie, finally in the privacy of their own shared home, broke down and refused to let her cousin go. So Callie just laid on the couch and let Marie hug her, glad to know her cousin was safe in one piece.

So here she was, different situation same position with someone different. Callie ran a hand through the inkling's tentacles and hummed a small tune. She always had viewed 4 as this sort of young child she needed to protect, like a little sister or something, so she supposed that's where these overprotective tendencies came from. Agent 4's sobbing slowly began to cease, making Callie relax a bit.

Callie continued to hum the tune of "Marine Time Memory" in attempts to soothe Agent 4, Although sne wasn't sure how well it was going to work. Marie's deep motherly voice was much for suited for a job like this rather than hers, but all of her worries halted when she heard a small snore from the inkling.

Callie chuckled, a soft smile on her face as she gave the inkling a careful squeeze of a hug. She sighed, smiling warmly at the Agent.

"Sleepyhead..." Callie muttered, chuckling to herself again before yawning. "I suppose I'll join ya too.. It's been a long day for all of us." She hummed, laying her head back on the arm of the couch and leaving her arms wrapped protectivly around the agent. She began to feel her eyes fill with sleep and heaviness as she relaxed completely. closing her eyes with a sigh.

"Goodnight, Agent 4."

"Goodnight, big sis..."